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Taxpayers wanting a speedier response from HMRC face disappointment, as the department’s workload is rising just at a time when its officials refuse to work overtime. Although isolated to the taxman’s investigations unit, the fatter in-tray at the Revenue coincides with 70,000 of its staff refusing to work after-hours to clear backlogs. The Public and Commercial Services Union called the ban in protest to HMRC using overtime to ‘mask the impact of job losses,’ which it said had caused the backlogs. It added that, as a result of the ban, the pile of post and work at HMRC would “get worse, with less and less staff and not enough hours in the day to get the job done.” This will dash the hopes of taxpayers’ advisers, as six out of 10 say they have spent more time and money dealing with Revenue service problems over the past year. And new business for HMRC is about to step up, thanks to a number of MPs, yet to be identified, who have not paid tax on their often questionable Commons allowances. Formal investigations into them started in recent weeks, while all 644 MPs have been invited by HMRC to come clean, said Dave Hartnett, its permanent secretary for tax. Speaking to the committee looking into MPs’ expenses, he reportedly said it was unclear how many had made the common “mistake” of not paying tax on their claims. “There are a number that we will need to talk to”, Mr Hartnett said, the Daily Telegraph reported, adding: “That will lead to temporary increase in the number of investigations.” The staff processing those investigations, and all their colleagues at HMRC, have also come clean, revealing last month that their morale has sunk to a new low. In fact, the fall in morale at HMRC, which was the worst of 11 departments, poses the biggest threat to low-income earners, who are dependent on Revenue staff not making mistakes. In its survey, the Low Income Tax Reform Group found that just 11% of HMRC workers felt the department was well-managed, and only 9% said it changed things for the better. Although HMRC came top in data handling and security, about half said they lacked the tools or equipment to do their jobs, and less than a fifth would recommend HMRC as a great place to work. Jul 10, 2009 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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